Survivor battles cancer again – living best life

Cancer survivor Rosanna Surajdeen said since her cancer returned this year, she wants to live her best possible life and make the best memories. She said she urges everyone she meets, male or female, to get tested.

Surajdeen was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017 at 53 when her gynaecologist urged her to do a mammogram after her annual checkup. The results were suspect and when she did a CT scan, she found out she had bilateral breast cancer.

“That meant what it was on the left side, it was exactly the same on the right side. So I had it in both breasts. I had stage 2 on the left side and stage 1 on the right side.

“When I did the first biopsy, it came back negative and for some strange reason my oncologist, Prof Vijay Narinesingh, said to me he wanted to do a second biopsy, I suppose because of his experience, and it came back positive.”

She said she opted to have a double mastectomy instead of a lumpectomy, as she had a history of cancer in her family.

A mastectomy is surgery to remove a breast. Sometimes other tissues near the breast, such as lymph nodes, are also removed. A lumpectomy is surgery to remove cancer or other abnormal tissue from the breast.

“My father died from colon cancer and my aunt had brain cancer, both on my father’s side of the family.

"It was very scary getting the news, but having gone through it with my father prepared me for my own journey.

“I told myself even though it was hard, I wasn’t going to be defined by it, because I saw what it did to my father and I saw how he chose to live his life firstly, and then what had happened to him when he was diagnosed a second time.”

She said after starting treatment, she was a survivor for five years and had changed her lifestyle.

“You tend to look at your whole life, how you’re going to be eating healthy. Things you would take for granted, you’re now looking at closely.

“A lot of people look at me and don’t realise I’m a survivor. I was recently diagnosed again. Although I was doing all the correct things in my book, the cancer came back. It has metastasised to lungs and bones.”

Surajdeen said part of what made her able to deal with her ailment was her support network, both familial and at the Cancer Society.

“I tell everyone who has been diagnosed or has any type of ailment, without support or some kind of family and friends, sometimes you lose the battle.”

She said the counsellors at the Cancer Society were extremely helpful with managing both the physical and mental aspects of the disease.

“The society offers you so much help. They’re there for you. They put you in touch with other survivors who can relate to what you’re going through. I have had other peers in the society. We talk, we cry, we laugh together. They can’t tell their spouses because they feel they’re a burden to the caregivers, so they hide a lot of the stuff.

“You have your friends, you have your family, you have your people, but sometimes you can’t be totally honest with them. I found with my dad and myself that your caregivers are pained by what they see you going through and you don’t want to see them sad and in pain, so you tend to hide some of your feelings.”

After she found out the cancer had come back, she joined the Sangre Grande Oncology Department.

“I must say there are angels walking among us. They have been so good to me. I look at how they treat all the other patients with such care. We bash the health system, but we don’t praise those who make the extra effort, who come out early, who pray with you before they give you a treatment, the little things they do that make a difference. We take it for granted.”

Surajdeen said the news of her cancer returning was most devastating for the family members who had been with her from the beginning.

“They have seen that life is so fragile. My sisters go with me to treatments and now they want to come and stay with me every weekend.

"I live alone. I have a daughter who’s on her own, but I choose to live my life the way I want to live. I don’t want to be a burden to too many people.

“Having gone through this before, and having it come back, I think I just want to live the best possible life, doing things, making the best possible memories, having fun.”

She said when her family found out her cancer had returned, they took it just as hard as they had the first time.

“I have friends who took me into their homes when I was diagnosed because they knew how hard my daughter had it. When I did the mastectomy, I had to sleep sitting down for five months, and she slept on the floor next to me. I didn’t want her to go through this a second time.

“I’m a survivor, I’m a warrior, I can do this, and I think once you start knowing you could rely on yourself, it pushes you to be a better person, to get that strength in you to get out of the bed every morning. I could lie down and say, ‘Woe is me’ and let people take care of me, because I do have that support, but it’s not my personality.”

Surajdeen said she had the luxury of being able to take a year off work to recover from surgery when she was first diagnosed, as her business is family-owned.

“I went back to work after that, because I love what I do. I really enjoy the job I have. Being away from staff makes me sad. Being around them has its challenges, but it’s nice to be around them because they are a caring bunch of people."

She said between her father’s diagnosis and hers, the company changed the way it operated so it was less stressful.

Since she was re-diagnosed, Surajdeen has been on oral chemotherapy for two weeks, which had the same side effects as injected chemotherapy, including loss of hair, bloatedness, vomiting, and pain in her hands.

“I couldn’t use my hands and feet because I had blisters.

"The way I used to dress compared to how I dress now is chalk and cheese, because I’m just in socks and Crocs, when I like my high-heeled shoes. Having the treatment humbled me a bit in that my body has changed, my style has changed, and I went with the flow of it.”

She said the oral treatment stopped working a few weeks ago and she will be starting a new IV treatment at the end of October.

“The doctors can’t tell me what my prognosis is until I start the treatment. I’m juicing, eating healthy, staying off the sweets, I’m trying to build up my body in terms of exercising my lungs in preparation for what I’m going to be faced with. They say prepare for the worst and hope for the best.”

She said one good thing that had come out of her diagnosis was a change in her lifestyle and attitude.

“It takes something bad for something good to come out of it. I look at my lifestyle before my dad was diagnosed and I look like my lifestyle now after I was diagnosed and it changed.

“I’m not as hasty as I used to be, I don’t get vexed when I’m in traffic. I pay attention to nature, I enjoy listening to my surroundings. I have become a little more spiritual: whatever God has to offer, I’m accepting with as much grace as I can.”

She said there was a point where she used to get really angry and the slightest thing would irritate her, to the point of lashing out at people she loved.

“That part was hurtful. Then I recognised I couldn’t do that and I stopped. I realised it’s not anyone’s fault, it’s not the fault of my diet or how I’m living or my family and friends, or people who are there. I recognised I needed to take out the anger in me.”

Surajdeen said she tells everyone to get screened for cancer, as it could be caused by genetic or environmental factors.

“Don’t think you’re safe because your family doesn’t have a history, or you’re eating healthy. You could be working in a toxic stressful environment or around chemicals where you don’t know how they’re affecting you.

"I think both men and women should get screened for all types of cancer every year or two years as part of their regular checkups. Early detection can help you and give you a longer life.”

Surajdeen said she’s now focusing on building community and being there for people she meets.

“We need to go back to the days of village life. I offer anybody, if they want to come, sit down, talk, I try to make a little sanctuary at my home. I have friends who come over, they just sit outside and chill, drink a cup of tea.

“I want to make a difference in someone else's life. My brother once asked me what kind of legacy I’d like to leave behind and it was a very hard question to answer.

"Now that I’m going through this a second time, I want when people hear my name, they say, ‘You know, I could talk to her and feel better after I talk to her.’”

Surajdeen said she was always spirited and the wild one in the bunch growing up.

“I want what I leave behind – if my daughter talks to you and you say, ‘I was able to go by your mom and sit down and drink a cup of tea and unburden and not feel judged or not feel anything,’ – that is what I want to leave behind.”